From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcold snapˈcold snap noun [countable] COLDa sudden short period of very cold weather
Examples from the Corpus
cold snap• The warming phase was interrupted by a cold snap in which the first flip from warm to cool took only three years.• A week into April it snowed deeply, half-thawed, and froze in a cold snap.• A bout of selling on the stock exchange, perhaps, or a cold snap that reopens the fuel price issue.• They seemed to be talking about the recent cold snap.• Despite the cold snap, a white Christmas was an unlikely prospect for most people. 